


Oral Health, Allies and Other Definitions That Can Change in a Month

by zarabithia



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: M/M, Pre-New 52
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-23
Updated: 2010-01-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 01:45:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15013979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarabithia/pseuds/zarabithia
Summary: Along the trip across the multi-verse, Jason finds a world without Batman. He decides to stay.





	Oral Health, Allies and Other Definitions That Can Change in a Month

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Donna's voice is as sweet as it's ever been, and for just a moment, Jason remembers the kind lady who had welcomed him into the Titans. He remembers the smell of her hair and force of her strength, and even the teasing promise of a spanking.

He's kind of bummed that she never carried through with that promise. "Don't have a choice. This world doesn't have a Bruce Wayne, but it does have a Gotham. It needs taken care of."

"I'm sure the Justice League - " Rayner begins, and Jason rolls his eyes.

"Like any of _your kind_ has ever been interested in taking care of Gotham," Jason snorts. "Go on, you two. Get lost."

Donna hugs him goodbye, and Rayner wishes him luck before they leave.

Luck. Like Jason's ever had any of _that_.

** Day Two: **

It's probably the most time he's ever spent in a library. But Jason spends the better part of the day reading the grim details of the eight-year-old boy shot down next to his parents.

A world without Batman gives Jason a lot of freedom. There's nothing he can't do here, because his statement to Rayner had been truth: no one cares about Gotham.

Jason thinks briefly of the world they'd visited in which he'd _been_ Batman, but dismisses it. He doesn't know what the hell that Jason had been thinking - wearing the cowl was never in his plans.

He won't be Batman.

** Day Five: **

Getting a place takes longer than Jason would have liked, but not as long as it might taken others. He's had some practice, after all, because coming back from the dead and being dropped onto an alternate version of his world have a lot in common.

The digs aren't exactly Wayne Manor, but Jason never quite fit in there, anyway.

Somehow, he doesn't feel too bad about stealing the money from the druggies, dealers, and pimps that he routinely beats. Taking their money sooths the unfinished feeling he gets when he lets the incompetent Gotham police take them away instead of finishing them himself.

** Day Ten: **

This world has never had a Robin, either.

But unlike the childhood version of Bruce Wayne, Dick has turned out okay. Jason isn't Oracle, by any stretch of the imagination, but he can hack decently enough. Bruce taught them all enough basics that Jason is able to find out that Dick's adopted family is a perfectly boring nuclear family that comes complete with a newly adopted little brother.

The family that Dick's built for himself as an adult is equally as boring. He and his red-headed wife share an apartment that will probably grow in size once Dick's done with law school.

It's the kind of perfect family that makes Jason hate Dick a little more, because Jason knows it's everything Dick ever wanted.

 ****Day Fifteen:  
  
Gotham is a busier place than the one Jason left behind. He wonders if he'll ever get a chance to tell Bruce he was wrong and that clearly, Batman really _did_ make a bigger difference, even with dumb ass no-kill policy, than Jason had ever given him credit for.

It's a thought he ponders while watching Dick's son walk home with a group kids that Jason can't help think don't look a damn thing like the Teen Titans.

The kid looks happy in his ridiculously bright red jacket and neon-green sneakers that light up as he walks. Of all the things to pass on, Dick _had_ to pass on his fashion sense?

Jason leaves before he can be spotted, either by the kid or by the kid's uncle that's pulling babysitting duty.

 ****Day Sixteen:  
  
Jason looks through the files he has on the Teen Titans - _Dick's_ Teen Titans - and he hopes to a god he doesn't really believe in that the ones back home know how fucking lucky they are to have him as their leader.

He also hopes they have some idea how fucked they would be without Dick as their leader.

Then he closes the file, and doesn't think about the Teen Titans again.

** Day Eighteen: **

Jason doesn't allow himself the time to brood over what action of Batman's inadvertently saved his life years before they were supposed to meet.

Jason also doesn't allow himself the time to wonder if the bullet that tore into this world's eight-year-old Jason hurt less than crowbar and resurrection he went through.

** Day Twenty: **

Five of Jason's ribs are broken, his hands are swollen to the size of Blockbuster's head, and it's a chore just to get the food into his mouth. There are more checks he needs to be running, but he also has to recover.

His pizza is cold, he misses Alfred more than ever, and he wonders how the hell he is ever going to do this _alone._

** Day Twenty-Five: **

He's been following Bruce's lead since he got here. Jason's not actually planning on changing that method.

But he doesn't have any remorse about pulling the trigger that puts a bullet in the Joker's skull.

** Day Twenty-Seven: **

Barbara _Kord_ would take some getting used to, Jason thinks. _President of Research and Development at Kord Industries_ Barbara Kord takes even more getting used to.

But she still has her legs, and takes great delight in showing them off as she dances with her husband in a city far away from the one Jason is trying to protect.

She has other things to do with her life. But Jason puts her name under "possible" ally, just in case.

It's more than he had yesterday.

** Day Twenty-Nine: **

"Well, you're kind of pathetic," is the first thing out of Jason's mouth when he meets this world's Tim.

He possibly should have used a nicer greeting, because the dork looks up at him all indignantly.

"You should talk," the dork retorts. "What are you supposed to be? An angry Goth? A gay vampire? A KISS fan?"

Jason shakes his head. "We've got to work on your lame witty come-backs, Timmy. In the meantime - a _dentist_ , really?"

"Oral health is very important," Tim defends, and Jason doesn't even try not to laugh.

Tim sighs and begins packing up his books, which is not really what Jason is aiming for. "Look, don't get pissy, Timmy - "

"My _name_ is Tim. Not Timmy," he responds irritably. "Who are you, anyway? I haven't seen you in any of my classes."

"You can call me Jason, and so, I've been doing some investigating. It turns out that your life sucks and pre-dentistry is the fifth major you've gone through this year. Unlike Dick Grayson, who is actually happy, you don't have any idea what you are doing. Probably because what you're actually supposed to be doing got taken away from you before you were even born."

Or, at least, the minute that Dick Grayson was adopted by the world's most boring nuclear family. Either way, Tim bristles at the mention of Dick, and Jason knows that he has Tim in the palm of his hand.

**** Day Thirty-One:

"Your recruitment act needs work," Tim remarks. "Join me, be my Robin? Really?"

"Hey, I was talking to the guy who was making statements about the importance of _oral_ health," Jason answers snidely, stretching out on the mat. "Besides, it worked, didn't it?"

Tim sits up and shows off his naked frame, which is a little scrawnier than Jason would have liked, but that can be fixed. It _will_ be fixed, because there's more fire in Tim's eyes in this discussion than there ever was when the boy had been defending his precious dentistry.

"Speaking of oral health..." Tim teases, flashing a very healthy smile before putting his mouth to better use.

Jason wraps his hands into Tim's hair and thinks that the kid might turn out alright.

It's too early to hope that the same can be said for this world, but it _has_ only been a month.  



End file.
